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Saturday, March 30, 2013

I recently saw a post over at Lucy's blog in which she combined pastel skittles with Nubar's Black Polka Dot. I really liked the idea and since the weather is nice again today (Good Friday, by the way) I decided to do the pastel skittles as well and add White Polka Dot to make it cuter! Let's see how that came out.

Sorry for how bad my thumb looks. I don't know what's going on with my thumbs but they always look utterly horrible. Anyway, the polishes I used, from thumb to pinky, are: essence - absolutely blue, China Glaze - Lemon Fizz, P2 - lovely moment, essie - Mint Candy Apple and Rimmel - Lively Lilac. Three coats each to make them all absolutely smooth (since I had first intended to do skittles only, without the glitter), then one coat of White Polka Dot and top coat. I really like it, it's cute and fresh and just very spring-like to me :) Not the most innovative thing to do, but I don't care, I love it. And I love pastel, so there.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

I recently found this at the store, looking for nothing in particular, and purchased it on impulse. Something about the vibrant color just drew me in!

Two coats with top coat. You have to imagine this less orange and a bit more pink. It's a cross between coral and pink in my opinion. I had a fleeting thought about this being too orange for me to look good, but I actually quite liked it thanks to the pink tones.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

I recently wore another sand style polish by P2 which I really liked, check it out.

Two coats, no top coat. To get an idea of the beautiful shimmer, look at the bottle. This reminded me a little of a-england's Tristam, although besides the color these two polishes have nothing in commong. Well, apart from being nail polishes. Again, removal wasn't exactly easy. I still have a few shimmer particles on the nails that didn't quite come off. I didn't try very hard to get rid of them either, though.

Is there a sand style polish you'd like to see next? What do you think of this one?

Friday, March 22, 2013

Sally Hansen's latest limited edition for the German product range is comprised entirely of nail polish strips. I got two designs to try them out and I'm showing you the first one I tried out today.

So. Yeah. I wore these from Friday night until Sunday night. I showered with them on, did some dishes... I had chips. I really wanted to test the wear to see if the 10-day-wear-claim would be legit, but several things annoyed me too much to go through with it. Application didn't work too great for me since even when I pressed the strips down, they wouldn't stay down in all places so my hair got caught on the ends that were standing up. It wasn't horrible, but not nice either.
Some of the strips tore when I peeled them off the supporting piece. Furthermore, the strips fit well near the cuticle area but crinkled near the tip which felt weird and was the most annoying of all problems I had. Shaping was kind of hard to do as well, especially around the corners of my nail tips, near the skin.
I hope I can apply the other set I got more easily or more accurately since the price tag of just under ten bucks for one use isn't really worth that much pain. Removal was weird, too. I could peel most of the strips off almost entirely, the rest I got rid of with nail polish remover, which is the recommended method for taking the strips off. Mostly, the remover got the black lace pattern to rub around on the more gooey nude part. It was kind of a dry mush? Weird, as I said.
Final verdict: I like the design, but application and wear aren't as easy or comfortable as I wish they were.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

P2 jumped on the bandwagon of textured polishes with their recently released "sand style" line which is comprised of six polishes. OF COURSE I had to get them all and now I'm showing you the first one I wore!

Two coats with matt top coat. It didn't dry with the finish I expected, so I added a matt top coat to achieve the effect I wanted. It was kind of a pain to remove, but oh-so pretty while it lasted. I love it!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Today we're looking at an unexpected find from Maybelline - let's get right into it!

One coat over Catrice "Shopping Day At Bluemingdales", with top coat to make it shine even more. The color shifts from blue to green/yellow to pink, which I think you can see fairly well in the photo. Quite nice, and I never expected Maybelline to come out with a color like this!

Saturday, March 16, 2013

I recently picked up a few Color Show polishes. None of the standard ones caught my eye before, but currently they have a few limited editions out that include some cool colors, so here are the three I got.

Marinho

Two coats with top coat. I really like how dark this is, but without lots of light it looks almost black, which is a pity.

Charged and Ready

Two coats with top coat. WOW, GREEN. I don't know why this mesmerizes me so, but it does. It's the shimmer, I think.

Light Wave

Two coats with top coat. Somewhere between a blue and a purple tone. It reminds me of disco light a little, so it has a fitting name, I guess.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

I've had the idea to do this post for a while and well, there's not much to explain beforehand. Let's get right into it instead, shall we?

The big jumble of everything...

matt top coatsuma cosmetics matt top coat - haven't tried it out a lot yet, but it works fine so faressence nail art special effect! topper soft touch - it used to work nicely but now it causes white streaksP2 Matte Victim top coat - works really nicely so faressie matte about you - just like the essence one this causes white streaksRival de Loop Top Coat Matt - works nicely so far

fast drying top coats (or those that claim to be fast drying)Maybelline MNY my Top Coat Drying Effect - really liked this one, but it got discontinued and the brush doesn't reach far enough down in the bottle to use it up easilyessence studio nails ultra gloss nail shine - this is actually a mix of the one that originally was in this bottle and some of the gel look top coat (see a bit further down) just so I can use them both up; works okay but the formula got weird because of the mix so it acts a bit weirdCatrice Quick Dry High Shine - this one isn't fast drying in my opinionessie good to go - doesn't work for me, it's not fast enoughYves Rocher vernis gloss - works better than I'd have expected, smells unpleasant to me, kind of vinegar-y?essence gel look top coat - doesn't live up to the claim of "gel look" and doesn't dry fastessence studio nails better than gel nails top sealer - my favorite, works best for meessence studio nails better than gel nails top sealer high gloss - this dries the topmost layer of polish fairly quickly but the other layers not so quickly, not too greatessence studio nails better than gel nails top sealer fast dry - haven't tried this one yet, I'm a little confused by the extra "fast dry" that they slapped on the labelessence Fruity scented top coat - haven't tried this yetessence Fruity sealing top coat - haven't tried it yetessence quick dry topcoat - it's not fast drying at all in my opinion

base coats (or what I use as base coat anyway)P2 Base + Care Coat - works well, doesn't dry very fast thoughMaybelline MNY my Hardener Nail Strengthener - this smells so bad and the green color looks super nasty; I had to force myself to use this; dries quickly, also discontinued like the MNY top coat; didn't notice any hardnening of my nailsBarry M Basecoat Topcoat & Nail Hardener All In One - dries quickly, works well; wouldn't use it as a top coat, also didn't notice any hardening of my nailsessie rock solid - dries quickly, works well; again, didn't notice any nail hardening going on so farMaybelline Salon Care Nagelhärter - dries quickly, works well; no nail hardening noticedChina Glaze First & Last - works well, dries quickly; I wouldn't use this as a top coatOPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener Soft & Thin - I have used this maybe twice so far so I can't say anything about it yetRival de Loop Care schützender Unterlack - works okay, takes a little longer to dry than the more liquid base coatsRival de Loop Care Nagelhärter - just decided to use this up next, can't say anything about it yetOrly Top 2 Bottom - I've only used this maybe once or twice, so no judgement to pronounce here yet

other stuff that doesn't quite fit in the other categoriesessence nail art express dry drops - tried them once or twice, always made a huge mess, didn't do anything for meP2 oil-free primer - only used this maybe three times so far, didn't notice any difference to applying my polish without primeressence nail art peel off base coat - really nice for glitter polishes, but you have to be careful not to pick at your nails at all and it feels weird when you apply itMicro Cell 2000 Nail Repair - haven't used this, it's a nail hardener that you have to use in a special cycle for it to work optimally and I'm too lazy for that mostly; my mom used to use this, but I don't know if it worked for her; this contains formaldehyde and you're advised to protect your skin when you use it

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Today we're breaking the polish scheme once again with a product that I just bought last week and was very impressed by. Again with the matt lip products...

This is an orange-toned red. Not so orange that it's too much, though. There are six colors in total, but most of them seemed either too nude, too orange or just too strong (especially the pink and the purple ones) to me, so I purchased the only one that wasn't either of these. By the way, that red blotch on the left side of my mouth in the photo is NOT a smudge, it's some weird camera-fail. I took that photo when it was already pretty dark outside, but I thought the application was just so perfect (for me anyway) that I HAD to take a photo. Application is really easy thanks to the peaked form, which will obviously wear down as you continue using this lipstick, unfortunately. It really gives a matt finish and it didn't feel uncomfortable or very drying on my lips. It doesn't transfer onto lips or skin - trust me, I tried! Well, maybe it will transfer if you go smooching with great intensity, but pecks will not make this budge. Another plus: This is a twist-up pencil, so no sharpening. I will go back to the store and look at the other colors again, definitely.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

I'd had Fowl Play as a lemming for a while before I finally purchased it a few months back (how time flies, seriously!). I tried it out on its own first, found that it didn't quite look the way I wanted it to; so I thought I should try layering it over a dark purple. Here's the outcome, which - spoiler alert - I really love.

One coat of "Fowl Play" over two coats of "Honk If You Love OPI", with top coat. Oh yeah. The flakies in "Fowl Play" are multichrome, by the way.

Friday, March 8, 2013

This is one of the shades that, along with its sister, Steel My Soul, recently got discontinued. It's the second one with the so-called "Brushed Metal Effect" (the third one is called "How I Matt Your Mother"). I never found it nice enough to pick it up before but my OCD-tendencies yelled at me to not have "Steel My Soul" without "Steel My Heart", so I caved and for once I'm glad I did because this, guys, is a beauty in disguise. I always found this too brown, felt like it wouldn't look good on me, etc. Turns out I love it! Let's finally have a look, shall we?

Two coats without top coat, to conserve the matt effect. I really like this matt, but it also looks nice with top coat since the shimmer will become more obvious. I actually bought a back-up! Both bottles were acquired during the sale Catrice always has going on right before they change ranges, so yeah, totally justifiable to have two bottles, right?!

Is there a polish you thought you'd hate but actually love? Or maybe the other way round?